Guide to OSUSTECH E-library and E-resources Website:

Contents Overview on E-library What is E-resources Available E-resources in OSUSTECH Library What You can Find on the Library Website Search Techniques Basic and Advance Search Techniques Practical Demonstration of Search Techniques

Electronic library is the concept of remote access to the contents and services of libraries and other information resources, combining an on-site collection of current and heavily used materials in both print and electronic form, with an electronic network which provides access to, and delivery from, external worldwide library and commercial information knowledge sources (Tiwari, 2008). Overview on E-library

Walters (1998) defined digital libraries as ‘ organizations that provide the resources including the specialized staff to select, structure, offer intellectual access to, interpret, distribute, preserve the integrity of and ensure the persistence overtime of collections of digital works so that they are readily and economically available for use by a defined community or set of communities. ’

Bird (2011) succinctly put it thus ‘digital libraries are organized on computers, accessible over a network, and employ procedures to select, organize, make available, and archive information. Bird affirmed that digital libraries are originally made for scientific and technical research’

the rich research contents which these e-resources possess; the portability and the easy access mode The e-resources include e–Journals, e-Books, online database, CD-ROM database, subject gateways and audio books, among others

Available E-resources ARDI AGORA AJOL ALUKA EBMCENTER EBSCOHOST HEPSEU HINARY JSTOR JSTOR PLANT SCIENCE OXFORD JOURNAL OARE NUC VIRTUAL LIBRARY Online Based ResourcesOffline Based Resources TEEAL CD-ROM Database OSUSTECH Digital library

AGORA (Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture) Provide access to major scientific journals in agriculture and related biological, environmental and social sciences.

AJOL (African Journals online) This is the world’s largest and pre-eminent collection of peer-reviewed, African-published scholarly journals.

ALUKA This is a part of JSTOR. It is an international, collaborative initiative saddled with the responsibility of building an online digital library of scholarly resources from and about Africa. The content areas include: African cultural heritage and landscapes as well as struggle for freedom in South Africa

EBMCENTER This is one of the online databases published by European Book which specializes in the supply of trade/export directories to academic institutions, schools and colleges, trade/export development centers, chambers of commerce and industries.

EBSCOHOST DATABASE EBSCOhost is a powerful online reference system accessible via the Internet. It offers a variety of proprietary full text databases and popular databases from leading information providers. The database types range from general reference collections to specially designed, subject-specific databases for public, academic, medical, corporate and school libraries. It Provides valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi- disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals on all discipline.

HEPSEU Database ( Higher Education Programmes & Scholarships in European Countries) This is the only and overall European source of information and reference directory covering the information on more than higher education programmes (Bachelors, Masters, Doctorates) in European Countries and on more than 1.5 million scholarships, grants available for these programmes. However, students, faculty members, researchers, graduates who are interested benefit from these facilities available to them in European Countries.

HINARI Access to Research in Health Programme provides online access to the major journals in biomedical and related social sciences to local, not-for-profit institutions.

JSTOR This is an online archive and research platform that supports the use of scholarly materials by a wide range of audiences and users. Through JSTOR, faculty, researchers, students, and others are able to discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content including over 1,000 academic journals, as well as conference proceedings, monographs, and other scholarly content.

JSTOR Plant Science JSTOR Plant Science is an online environment that brings together content, tools, and people interested in plant science.

NUC Virtual Library The National Virtual Library Project is an online digital library hosted and managed by the National Universities Commission (NUC). The goal is to ensure that user (subscribers) have the latest publications of the highest calibre in their respective fields (the Arts, Medical Sciences, Pure Science, Social Sciences, Technology, etc...) to facilitate teaching, research and

Access to Research for Development and Innovation (ARDI) This is a program coordinated by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) together with its partners in the publishing industry with the aim to increase the availability of scientific and technical information in developing countries

Exploring the Links on the Library Website

Tips on the Basic and Advance Search Techniques Basic Search Advanced Search

Tips on the Basic and Advance Search Techniques

What is Advanced Search Techniques? Advanced search techniques are techniques employed in an online environment to help you become the fast, effective searcher you really need to be as a student or researcher using online information sources. The advanced search techniques however helps you to find the most reliable information available.

What is Boolean Search? George Boole, an English mathematician in the 19th century, developed "Boolean Logic" in order to combine certain concepts and exclude certain concepts when searching databases. However, Boolean searches allow you to combine words and phrases using the words AND, OR, NOT and NEAR (otherwise known as Boolean operators) to limit, widen, or define your search. Boolean Search is also known as ‘boolean logic’, ‘boolean operators’, ‘boolean operands’, ‘boolean definition’, ‘boolean searching’, ‘boolean commands’. It makes your search result more flexible or specific. It also increases the accuracy of your searches, giving you the best results.

Boolean Search Operators The AND operator combines search terms so that each result contains all of the terms. For example, Biotechnology AND Bioinformatics will result in articles that contain both Biotechnology and Bioinformatics. The OR operator combines search terms so that each result contains at least one of the terms. For example, Botany OR Plant Science will result in articles that contain Botany OR Plant Science. The NOT operator excludes search terms so that each result will not contain any of the terms that follow it. For example, Bioremediation NOT Biodegradation will result in articles that contain the term Biochemistry, not Chemistry. The Boolean search operators include AND NOT OR

How to Narrow and Broaden your Search You can narrow your search by adding more search terms. To make sure that all the records your search finds contain all the search terms, link them with the and operator. If you do not wish to see records containing a certain term, you can exclude these by using the not operator. Be careful when using this, you may miss records that contain useful information because you have excluded too many records. With many databases you will need to use and not rather than not, Meanwhile, if your search returns few or no records, you might have more success if you can think of alternative search terms. This can include: other terms related to your topic, synonyms (words with the same meaning), different word endings (singular and plural forms, for example), different spellings (UK versus US spelling, for example) To broaden your search, that is searching for articles that return one or more of your search terms, link them together with the or operator. For example, Traditional Rulers are also known as Kings and so to get as many relevant records in your search as possible, you would use: Traditional Rulers or Kings

Other Search Techniques Boolean searching can be extended further by proximity, truncation and wild card operators. Truncation, Wild Cards and Proximity The wildcard is represented by a question mark (?). To use the wildcard, enter the search terms and replace each unknown character with a (?). database will provide results containing variations of that character set, with the “?” replaced by a letter. For example, type academ?a to find all citations containing academy, academic or academia. Truncation is represented by an asterisk (*). To use truncation, enter the root of a search term and replace the ending with an asterisk (*). The database will find all available forms of that word. For example, type literatu* to find the words literature.

Proximity Search Allows you to specify that records found by your search contain one search term near another. If, for example, you are interested in wireless connection, a search string such as the near operator requires that a record has terms close to wireless connection in the text, making it more likely that there is a meaningful link between the terms in the record. However, you can specify the number of nearer terms you want to appear. Note that the closer the search terms are, the greater their relevance to each other. For example, you can input ‘wireless connection near10 or N10 computer networking and the database will display a result of nearer terms.

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